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20121208: Don’t eat anything that is incapable of spoiling (Michael Pollan) by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #food #creativecommons #quote

20121208: Don't eat anything that is incapable of spoiling (Michael Pollan) by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #food #creativecommons #quote
20121208: Don’t eat anything that is incapable of spoiling (Michael Pollan) by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #food #creativecommons #quote

In my search for my sense of nutrition and a healthy relationship to food, I learned many new philosophies, some of which I bristled at and found rather false, such as any that need subscription to a proprietary method of thinking, those that exclude types of food (think Atkins), and those that call certain kinds of nutrients evil, like “bad carbs”.

Other food philosophies I have reveled in and succeeded with are those that are mostly about natural, whole foods, hold a reasonable balance between realism and pragmatism, and are truly do-able in practice. Michael Pollan writes about his very sensible approach, an approach to food that I’ve mostly adopted as my own.

He writes many of the elements of his philosophy simply, in ways that make sense, and reinforced with scholarly data as well as experiential data. This one illustrated above, avoiding foods preserved to the point of not really having a shelf life, makes sense. Preservation often moves food from its natural rotting, decomposing state to one that benefits producers. in which food lasts nearly forever, so that it can be sold forever. It means less to the producers who use extreme shelf live preservation that they may alter, harm, or negatively impact the consumer. That long list of preservatives on the back of the package? You can probably do without those.

food, eating, nutrition, Pollan, food rules, lemasney, open source, Inkscape, design, illustration

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20121207: raised hands in a diverse classroom by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #illustration #creativecommons

20121207: raised hands in a diverse classroom by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #illustration #creativecommons
20121207: raised hands in a diverse classroom by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #illustration #creativecommons

One of the things that I find important to foster in my classroom is a diverse set of points of view being represented. By having people present and defend their biases, myself included, we may come to a better, mediated understanding of a given topic. Mostly, we accomplish this through open inquiry on topics, an environment that has trust, and a clear set of rules on respect. Then, after all voices are heard, we introduce case studies, scholarly research, and lots and lots of facts to find out what is most likely true. Because truth, after all, is relative.

diversity, classroom, inquiry, trust, facts, scholarly, research, questions, answers, raise your hand, lemasney, open source, Inkscape, design, illustration

 

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20121206: A portrait of Richard Stallman’s face in ascii text binary code by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #opensource #creativecommons #design

20121206: A portrait of Richard Stallman's face in ascii text binary code by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #opensource #creativecommons #design
20121206: A portrait of Richard Stallman‘s face in ascii text binary code by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #opensource #creativecommons #design

Richard Stallman, a professor at MIT, and a personal hero of mine, is a curmudgeon.  He is the father of the Free Software movement, and a personal inspiration in his steadfastness in keeping the idea of free software alive, very specifically separating the ideas of Free (Libre) Software and Open Source Software, which he opposes. I approached him once when he spoke at Trenton Computer Festival, and it was the most brief of encounters. I came up to him at lunch, the only time I saw him outside of his speaking engagement, and he said simply, without really looking at me, “I don’t think I can do this right now.” I said, “thank you for all you do”. He looked at me, nodded, and went back to his salad. Even though this meeting was a bit of a disappointment, his speech was certainly not. He was in rare form, highly political, and just a bit offensive, in the most delightful way. Thanks for all you do, Richard. I appreciate it.

free software, Richard Stallman, lemasney, Inkscape, design, face, text, sketch, face in text, libre

 

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20121205: Suggested serving size by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #typography

20121205: Suggested serving size by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #typography
20121205: Suggested serving size by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #typography

One of the pitfalls of becoming calorie aware is that sometimes the number of calories on the nutrition facts on a package is not for the entire package, but rather some unreasonable portion of a package. In recent years, as people have become more aware, this has lessened. However, I notice that the worse the food is for you, the more likely you are to run into this. I don’t know anyone who consumes half a pack of cupcakes, one of a two-pack of mini apple pies, or half a can of soda, despite the serving size. However, the nutrition facts servings show that idea.

food, calories, servings, nutrition facts, lemasney, open source, Inkscape, creative commons

 

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Illustration portfolio

20121204: Swirl, a typographic flourish by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #typography

20121204: Swirl, a typographic flourish by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #typography
20121204: Swirl, a typographic flourish by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #typography

I really love typography play. Inkscape is my favorite tool, bar none, for this. I do it all the time. Enter a piece of text with the text tool and choose and apply a font that begins to speak to the end design in your mind. I chose ballpark as a starting point. Then select the text, and do a path/union operation (ctrl-shift-plus), which turns the text into a single editable path. Then use the node tool to tweak, move, resize, and shape the edges of your text until you have the shape that you want. I added a dot to the “i” inside of one of my flourishes, and joined it with the existing path using a second union operation.  In this particular case, I added a rectangle with a gradient to create a vignette in the background, and applied a beveling filter to the text to give it some depth.

swirl, text, flourish, typography, design, open source, lemasney, fun, sexy, playful, funny

 

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20121203: Cupcake made of text by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #food

20121203: Cupcake made of text by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #food
20121203: Cupcake made of text by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #food

I’ve looked at my stats, and people keep coming back here for a few things. In particular, people come for sketches about food, color, object as text, drawings, cupcakes, and animals. I couldn’t get them all in here, but I certainly got a few. Enjoy!

tags: cupcake, text, sketch, food, sweets, creative commons, lemasney, inkscape, open source, design, poster